1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to cooling a substrate, and more specifically to cooling a semiconductor chip.
2. Related Art
Thermal management is relevant to the operation of semiconductors devices. The power density in semiconductor devices continues to increase as the circuit density and operating frequency increase. Thermal management includes dissipating the heat generated by a semiconductor device away from the device and allowing the generated heat to disperse to its surroundings, while maintaining the semiconductor device at as low a temperature as possible. Insufficient transfer of heat away from a semiconductor device can result in performance and reliability degradation of the semiconductor device due to an unacceptably high operating temperature.
High performance semiconductor chips may have one or more “hot-spots”, which are regions of the chip having a power density that is substantially greater than the average power density (e.g., two to three times the average power density). To insure reliable long term operation, the thermal management of a semiconductor chip should account for these hot spots as well as for the average power density of the semiconductor chip.
Unfortunately, current methods of dissipating heat from a semiconductor chip are far from optimal. Thus, there is a need for a more efficient cooling of a semiconductor chip than exists in the related art.